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Are Your Shoulders In a Slump?

by Men's Health

Editors of Men's Health

Poor posture may be ruining your workout. Here's how to straighten up--and build a better body.

Consider This Fact:

The average human head weighs 8 pounds. And if your chin moves forward just 3 inches--as it tends to when you work at a computer--the muscles of your neck, shoulders, and upper back must support the equivalent of 11 pounds. That's a weight-bearing increase of 38 percent--often for hours at a time. Left untreated, the effect of chronic desk slump results in a postural dysfunction that physical therapists call upper-cross syndrome; you know it as rounded shoulders.

The consequences aren't simply a vanity concern; this little-known condition is a common cause of weight-lifting plateaus, as well as pain and injuries. And, chances are, if you work a desk job or lift weights, you already suffer--or soon will--from this sinister syndrome. Your risk is even higher if you do both.

Use the self-test that follows to determine whether you're an upper-cross victim. Then reevaluate your workout and your job posture with our problem-solving guide. It'll show you how to repair the damage if you've already fallen prey, and provide you with a preemptive battle plan for fending it off in the future. The bonus: Your shoulders will be bigger, stronger, and healthier than ever.

The Self-Test: Are You Crossed Up?

Place two fingers at the top of your right shoulder and feel for a bony notch that pro-trudes from it. That's your acromion. Now grab a ruler and lie on your back on the floor, your right arm resting alongside your body. With your left hand, measure the distance from your right acromion to the floor, being careful not to raise or lower your right shoulder as you do so. If the distance is more than 1 inch, you have upper-cross syndrome.

Want a second opinion? Ask a friend to take a digital picture of you--shirtless--from the side. Stand tall, but in a relaxed position, the way you would if you weren't thinking about your posture. Check to see if the middle of your ear is in line with the middle of your shoulder, hip, and ankle. If you can't draw a straight line through these points, then you've just been diagnosed--again.

Problem #1: Your Workout

The shoulder is the most complex and unstable joint in the human body. For it to function properly, you need to train all the muscles that help stabilize it. Trouble is, to the average guy, the shoulder muscles are the deltoids, the rounded muscles that cap the upper arms. Period. “Men suffer from an ‘If I can't see it, why train it?' mentality,” says Micheal Clark, D.P.T., president of the National Academy of Sports Medicine. And that means they'll do plenty of overhead presses and lateral raises--exercises that target the front and middle portions of the deltoid--but neglect the smaller, less visible muscles at the back of the shoulder joint. The result: a strength imbalance, which makes the shoulder less stable. Poor stability not only increases your risk of injury--think dislocations and rotator-cuff tears--but also reduces your strength in almost every upper-body lift. That's because you can lift only as much weight as your shoulders can support. In fact, weak shoulder joints are the most common cause of longtime lifting plateaus.

Another workout issue: bench presses and lat pulldowns, two of the most popular exercises in any gym (except Curves). The first move emphasizes your pectoralis major--the primary muscle of your chest--and the second targets your latissimus dorsi, the largest muscles of your back. Both of these powerful muscles attach to the inside of the upper arm, which means they rotate it inward. If you perform these exercises more than you do moves that rotate your upper arms outward--such as bent-over and seated rows--your pectoralis major and lats will pull your arms inward, causing your shoulders to round forward.

This primer shows you how to train your “other” shoulder muscles. As a general rule, count the total number of sets of bench presses, shoulder presses, pullups, and lat pulldowns that you do in a week, and make sure you do an equal number of sets of exercises that work the following muscle groups.

Rear Deltoids

The deltoid consists of three separate heads: the anterior head, or front deltoid; the medial head, or middle deltoid; and the posterior head, or rear deltoid. Though the shoulder press and lateral raise train the front and middle deltoids, they ignore the rear deltoid.

Exercise Rx: Try bent-over dumbbell raises and barbell bent-over rows using a wide grip. Do seated rows by pulling the rope handle to your neck instead of to your lower chest.

Rotator-Cuff Muscles

These four tiny muscles--the teres minor, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, and subscapularis--stabilize your upper-arm bone (the humerus) in your shoulder socket, allowing you to rotate your arm in every direction.

Exercise Rx: Bolster your rotator cuffs by working them at least twice a week with external-rotation exercises and a move called PNF. (See the workout on the previous page.)

Scapular Muscles

These muscles--the trapezius, serratus anterior, pectoralis minor, rhomboid major, and rhomboid minor--allow you to move and stabilize the shoulder blades, or scapulae. According to a study, 100 percent of people with shoulder-joint problems have unstable scapulae.

Exercise Rx: Focus on rowing movements, such as the bent-over row and seated row. Initiate rows and pulldowns by squeezing your shoulder blades together.

Problem #2: Your Job

If you suffer from poor desk posture, changing your lifting habits isn't guaranteed to correct your problem. After all, the 30 minutes a day you spend exercising is only a fraction of the time you spend sitting in one position. If your shoulders are slumped forward for long periods of time, your chest muscles become shortened. That is, since these muscles attach to your upper arms, the distance they need to extend when you slouch is less than when your shoulders are drawn back. Over time, the chest muscles adapt to this position as their natural length, pulling your shoulders forward. As a result, many of the shoulder's stabilizers are overstretched, which makes them weaker.

Exercise Rx: Use the stretches shown in “The Perfect Posture Plan” (page 85) daily. They force your chest muscles to extend, which prevents them from becoming permanently shortened. At work, do 10 standing shoulder retractions every hour when working at a com-puter. Stand and pull your shoulders back as you squeeze your shoulder blades together. Hold each repetition for 3 seconds. And focus on keeping your head and shoulders directly above your pelvis at all times--it's an easy way to ensure that your body is in proper alignment.

The Perfect Posture Plan

Fix your shoulders for good.

If you have upper-cross syndrome, scrap your entire upper-body workout and perform the routine below 3 days a week for 4 weeks. Do two sets of 12 repetitions of each exercise. Continue to incorporate these moves into your workouts even after you've completed the program. If you have chronic shoulder pain, see an orthopedist or physical therapist who specializes in sports. Go to aaos.org to find a doctor near you.

1. Shoulder-Adductor Stretch

Lie on the floor with your knees bent and your arms straight up in the air. With your back flat, slowly move your arms back and down toward the floor, keeping them straight and close to the sides of your head. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds.

2. Peel

Stand facing a wall and place your right arm against it,
fingers pointing to 3 o'clock. Keeping your shoulder and arm flush against the wall, rotate your body to the left by moving your feet. When you feel a stretch along your chest, hold for 20 to 30 seconds. Progression: After you've gained enough flexibility to perform the stretch with your body perpendicular to the wall, move your arm up to 2 o'clock, then progress to 1 o'clock.

3. Kneeling Lat Stretch

Kneel in front of a Swiss ball with your left arm on the ball and the other hand on the floor. Move your left arm forward until you feel slight tension. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds and repeat with your right arm. Progression: At the end of the stretch, when your arm is straight, slowly move it inward across your body until you feel tension.

4. Swiss-Ball T

Grab a pair of 2- or 5-pound dumbbells and lie facedown on a Swiss ball. Start with your back flat, your chest off the ball, and your arms hanging down, palms forward. Squeeze your shoulder blades down and together as you extend your arms to the sides, creating a T with your torso. Pause, then return to the starting position.

5. Incline Dumbbell V Raise

Lie facedown on an incline bench and hold dumbbells below your shoulders, thumbs pointing forward. Raise the weights in front of you at 45-degree angles, forming a V with your arms, until your arms are almost parallel to the floor. Pause, then lower the weights.

6. Kneeling External Rotation

Kneel with a cable station to your right and a small folded towel under your left armpit. With your left hand, grab the low pulley handle. Starting with the handle at your navel, rotate your arm away from your body to a 10 o'clock position. Pause, then return to the starting position. Finish the set, then repeat with the other arm.

7. Single-Leg PNF

Stand with a cable station to your left. Lift your right foot off the floor and reach across your body with your right hand to grab the handle. Pull the cable up and across your body while rotating your thumb to the right so that at the top of the move, your arm is straight and to the right of your shoulder. Reverse the move to the starting position and finish a set before repeating with your other arm.

8. Standing Cable Reverse Fly

Grab the left handle of a cable-crossover system with your right hand and the right handle with your left. Lean back and pull the handles down and across your body while squeezing your shoulder blades down and together. Pause, then return to the starting position.

Muscle Chow

Protein of the Sea

Tuna is a must for any man looking to pack on muscle. There's a boatload of benefits--it's packed with muscle-building protein and omega-3 fatty acids to lower your risk of heart disease--and just as many ways to turn tuna into a fast and easy meal. Here's one of my favorites: a new take on an old classic.

Tuna Sandwich

Step 1. Drain and rinse one can of tuna, drop it into a bowl, and break it apart with a fork. (I like low-sodium chunk white tuna packed in water.)

Step 2. Add the following ingredients.

- 1 Tbsp honey mustard
- 1 to 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- Some finely diced celery
- 1 apple (Use 1 wedge of peeled and diced apple for the tuna, then save the rest to garnish the plate and eat with your sandwich.)
- Pinch of fresh ground black pepper

Step 3. Mix with a fork and place half between two slices of whole-grain bread. Store the other half in the fridge for a postworkout meal.